Teams don't expect players' tiff to linger

BOSTON — Neither team expects any fallout from the Game 5 incident in which Josh Beckett and Kenny Lofton were jawing at each other during Lofton's fifth-inning flyout.

The two have been feuding since 2005, when Beckett was with Florida and Lofton played in Philadelphia.

Beckett acknowledged Friday he wasn't a fan of Lofton's bat flip after Lofton thought he had walked on a pitch that was called a strike.

"Yeah, it was a lot of stuff," Beckett said, declining to elaborate.

Lofton was asked after the game if it was "kind of silly" that Beckett got so upset about the way he puts his bat down.

"That's how he is," Lofton replied. "He's that kind of guy."

Terry Francona said Friday it was no big deal.

"I didn't consider it at the time, I really didn't," the Boston manager said. "I don't know if you went back and looked at the video, if you saw my gait out to the field, there wasn't a whole heck of a lot of urgency. Nobody was going to fight."

Cleveland manager Eric Wedge agreed it was much ado about nothing.

"I think there was just a little verbiage back and forth and nothing happened," he said. "Both teams run out, look at each other, and both teams ran back."

Stay tuned.

Invisible man

Indians slugger Travis Hafner is 3-for-19 in the series with six strikeouts in his last eight at-bats. For the entire postseason, Hafner is hitting only .200.

"We need him to get it going," Wedge said. "He's right there in the heart of our order. Sometimes he'll out-think himself. He just needs to go up there and hit. He's such a great talent when it comes to being an offensive player at this level, and he needs to go up there and just trust that and just hit. I think right now he's getting in his own way a little bit."